Seraph Chronicles

Freedom of Speech on the Internet

Freedom is something every living thing wants, it is a need rather than just a want, as without freedom our lives would be miserable and it would be no different than being dead. Cage a wild animal and it will probably not survive in captivity, but of all the creatures in this world, humans crave for more freedom than any other creature. Being the intelligent creatures we are we crave for different types of freedom, and though the modern world offers much of this freedom to us there are still some restraints as to what we can do.

Freedom of speech has been a highly debated subject throughout human history and some countries offer more freedom of speech than others due to cultural differences and beliefs of the people. Today w are posed with another type of problem with this matter, with the advent of technology and the Internet, a new type of freedom has been born for the cravings of people, that is the Freedom of Speech on The Internet.

The Internet is a controversial place where some people take it seriously and others simply think of it as a virtual and unreal world separated from the real world. It is the difference of opinions that has gave rise to the debate of whether people should have the this right or not. Giving thought to the fact that Freedom of Speech has it’s limits in the real world, then it would be natural that Freedom of Speech on The Internet should have it’s limitations as well. There are several reasons to this such as privacy, racial and religious differences as well as culture, but the most important of all is that there are Cyberlaws to uphold the law on the Internet.

Privacy has always been an issue where the Internet is concerned, with that it is even more important that people are not allowed to say whatever they want on the Internet. This is because what we say might be infringing on the privacy of someone else, a most common situation is the gossip that goes around about movie stars and singers alike. It seems fun to us to talk about these celebrities and their lives, but at the same time we are actually invading their personal lives without even realizing it. Everyone wants to know what’s going on between Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake but what about the celebrities themselves? Do they feel happy with all the tales being spread around them like wildfire? Gossip is very powerful and can even make a lie become truth if it is passed on to the right amount of people. Other than that, freedom of speech can make a minor racial difference into a major racial dispute. How does this come about? There is no doubt that there are differences between the many races of this world, but most of the time it can be tolerated by others. It will only turn into a dispute if someone bad mouths about the other race, perhaps their eating habits or beliefs. It is this kind of freedom to talk that is dangerous to people, some people will abuse this freedom to deliberately cause racial disputes. I believe that some wars are actually caused by this kind of abuse of freedom, by attacking people at their hearts with condemning words about their race, the tolerance between races can be easily torn down. Keeping that in mind isn’t it better to limit our freedom of speech a little to keep the world in harmony?

Being people of different races, we all have our own beliefs and religion. It is possibly the most important aspect of our spiritual lives, and as an identity for ourselves. Religion was never meant to discriminate others, or show superiority over each other, religion regardless of the different varieties teaches us all a general aspect in life, and that is to be a good person with high moral values. As with everything in this world, nothing is perfect, everything is a two sided coin which can be flipped over to see it’s adverse effects. Being human, we always think of ourselves as the best over others, with that people tend to critic others, people will start talking and critic other religions, offending other people in the process without knowing it. It is because of this that we should not just say whatever that comes to mind, and limit our own freedom to talk. Sure we can discuss about religion and their differences, but there should always be a limit to what we can say, especially avoiding sensitive aspects of the matter.

The various cultures all over the world are another reason why there should be a limit to freedom of speech on the Internet. Sensitive issues might be infringed thus enraging people from another culture. You have probably read articles about another culture and perhaps you might think it funny or stupid for them to do certain things, the next thing you know you will be talking about it to your friends, eventually this will spread like wildfire and before you know it, everyone has already taken that particular culture as a practical joke, perhaps even writing jokes about it. This sort of freedom of speech only encourages adverse effects towards people even though it was not meant to be, well people are emotional creatures after all. Freedom of speech should be controlled when it comes to politics as it is a very sensitive matter and if the wrong thing is said at the wrong time then a war might break out between two countries, perhaps even spoiling the relationship of two countries. Politics receive a lot of attention from people and with that attention come opinions, criticism, and worst of all rumors. Political figures are also a victim towards freedom of speech with people talking about them and spreading not so true facts about them. In any case we are better not to talk too much about politics if we do not fully understand it, be on the safe side and forfeit your freedom of speech in this topic.

All of the reasons discussed above about limiting ourselves with our freedom of speech on a medium such as the Internet is very appropriate as news – be it truth or lies can spread wide and far through this medium and affect a lot of parties at the same time. Cyberlaw is thus needed to control what happens on the Internet just as laws are needed in the real world. These laws are needed because human beings are just out of control without them and thus we need something to restrain ourselves from doing wrong. It is even more obvious to us now that we cannot say whatever we want on the Internet even though it is a virtual space, it reaches out and influences people as well. Since people cannot control themselves from hurting others thus these laws are needed to protect people from people. The understanding of Cyberlaws varies with the different educational background people receive, the older generation might not be so familiar with it or deem it necessary, but the younger generation will definitely recognize it’s importance. It is this difference in educational background that causes some people to release their frustration on the Internet by saying what he wants without thinking of the consequences. To them the Internet is just a virtual space where nothing is taken seriously, and so they say things they normally would not dare say in their everyday lives to actual people on the Internet. Thus there is a need to educate people in this area of law and order to make them see and believe that what’s said in the Internet has equal weight as what’s said in the real world, with that we can reduce the abuse of this freedom to talk.

A most notable difference with Cyberlaws is the region and country that you stay in. The more advanced nations such as United States of America, Japan and European countries may take Cyberlaw and offences in cyberspace more seriously than other countries. In Malaysia for example, there’s hardly any trace of restriction for what we can do on the Internet. Taking this into consideration people from one nation may be able or allowed to have more freedom of speech compared to other nations where it would be considered an offense. Therefore, conflict in cyberspace is still one hundred percent avoidable until there are global standards on cyberlaws, something that is recognized and implemented on an international scale to control this virtual space. This is highly needed as we can see that crimes in cyberspace are increasing daily, what with radical websites that promote religious conflicts such as the recent Taliban issue where there have been some discoveries of radical websites supporting them or even some websites that is aimed at raising more hatred around the world towards Islamic countries. These are the issues we need to be aware of when we surf the Internet, is this kind of freedom of speech really or should be allowed? My opinion suggests that the answer to that question is a definite no, as this type of abuse of freedom of speech will only further infuriate people who have been hurt by wrong doings of a small radical group of people towards them that would condemn their whole race or religion from the world. With that said, there is a need to protect the bigger ratio of innocents from wrongfully blamed or executed because of a few radicals. This further proves that there should be a limit to freedom of speech on the Internet, and an important and effective way of implementing this restriction is by implementing strict laws for cyberspace, perhaps a new body or agency should be formed especially for this task of law enforcement on the Internet, some sort of cyber police with the right to issue fines to people who say the wrong things on the Internet. Until a more effective way is found and implemented, all we can do is try to limit and be aware of what we say on the Internet, think of others feelings and most importantly the consequences of what you say before saying it.

As a conclusion, the freedom of speech on the Internet should have it’s limits as the Internet is a wide spreading medium that spans the globe and things that might be accepted in one part of the world might not be so in another part of the world might be mistakenly or unintentionally spread to the reaches of these ears, causing conflict and even wars. Thus for the peace and harmony of the Internet and the world, it’s best that this freedom be limited and controlled by whatever means possible, and lastly, think before you post anything on the net.